Reach... How You Get To It Isn't As Important As How You Use It

This post originally went out (literally right before posting this) at MarketingJunto.com. Feel free to sign up over there if you want these consistently in your inbox of choice every Wednesday.

It's Friday right now and I write this monologue. I'm staring at my Marketing Junto LinkedIn newsletter subscribers and looking at my Marketing Junto (on my actual site) subscribers. There's about 1/2 as many on my site as there are on LinkedIn.

For the longest time, it's been driving me nuts that I can't get those people on LinkedIn, who subscribe to my newsletter, there to move to my list that I FREAKING OWN.

They've opted-in to hear from me. So that's not the problem. The problem is that I don't own that list. LinkedIn does. 😒

So for the longest time, I've been stewing about what to do about this. I finally realized what I need to do. And it's kind of obvious.

I need to hire a VA to scrape everyone's emails that subscribe to Marketing Junto on LinkedIn and move it to my owned list. I'm Joking! Calm down! Take a deep breath!- 😉😜

In all seriousness. I realize I need to provide the content in both places. Damn it LinkedIn! Because as I say in the headline, it's how you use your reach that matters.

Though I would love my LinkedIn peeps to move to my newsletter, I understand that they want to hear from me in LinkedIn. To be honest that's fine and I need to respect that.

I use StoopInbox.com for all my newsletters. You know why? Because that's where I want to consume them. It's my choice. And when someone puts my main email address on their mailing list without my consent, it doesn't matter how good the newsletter is, I unsubscribe. Sometimes I even throw it in spam. Because it's not where I want to consume their content

The lesson here is to not focus on WHERE your reach is, but rather how you USE your reach. So if that means posting your newsletter in two places, so be it. 🥸

I hope this was a thought provoking diatribe. 😜 What do you think? Hit reply or if you're reading this on LinkedIn comment below and let me know!

Web Jawn

• When do you and ChatGPT cross the Milli Vanilli Line? Worthy of a read. Mark is right it's a fine line.
• A radical idea about AI and marketing Another gem from Mark.
• Teens and the impact of social media, a deep dive into recent work from Haidt Worth a read, especially if you have tweens or teens who are on social media.
• YouTube Will Now Let You Add More Links To Your Channel Profile This will definitely be handy for creators. It's not lost on me how this is different from other social media platforms' take on linking away from their sites.
• Meta Warns Group Admins to Maintain Activity, or They’ll Be Replaced Makes logical sense. Nothing's worse than having a group that isn't curated or moderated.
• Google warns against content pruning as CNET deletes thousands of pages I agree with Google to a point. But if the content isn't worthwhile or is out of date and not worth updating? 410 that sucker and call it a day. Or better yet, do a 301 redirect and point people to more relevant content.
• New York Times: Don’t use our content to train AI systems Can't say I blame the NYTimes for wanting its content out of systems that train AI. Hopefully Google et. al will come up with a Robots.txt directive to aid in this blocking.
• Hackers explore ways to misuse AI in major security test This could get interesting. With AI, social engineering could be just one way AI can be misused by hackers.
• The space industry is starting a green revolution Not at all marketing related, per se, but interesting none-the-less.
• Machine unlearning: The critical art of teaching AI to forget Having AI to forget data is hard. This could be a big industry in itself.
• The future of work is AI-enhanced and remote A great analysis from journalist Mike Elgan on the future of remote work and how AI will impact work in general.
• How To Integrate AI Into HR A great guest post in Michael Spencer's AI Supremacy Newsletter by Erkin Bek. Honestly anything to make the HR process better, especially with those looking for jobs will be a plus.
• Zoom's Wacky AI Moves in 2023 A good analysis from AI Supremacy's Michael Spencer on WTF Zoom was thinking with their AI moves this past week.
• Overstock - botched migration or clever business move? An interesting case study about how Overstock moved to the Bed Bath and Beyond brand and how what looks to be a botched or troubled move might have actually be clever.
• Site Architecture for Resource & Content Libraries — Whiteboard Friday One of the more helpful of the Whiteboard Friday videos. I'm a big proponent of resource and content libraries, but doing the right is key.
• Should startups worry about GitHub stars? Never really thought about it, but the system could in fact be gamed quite easily.
• The Podcast Monetization Trap: Why New Podcasters Should Shift Focus Away from Immediate Monetization Some good tips on why monetization as the first step isn't always best. A good read.
• 4 Ways to Distribute Content on Social Media | 5-Minute Whiteboard Great tips in this 5 minute video (with transcript) from internet marketing OG Rand Fishkin.

I Was On Small Business Success Talk!

I was honored to be a guest on Christy Smallwood's Business Success Talk Podcast as part of their Summer of Strategy series. ( Christy Smallwood )

That's it for this week!

As always stay curious!

- Seth